"Don't worry!" he said. "If it's a gorilla I'll bet its curiosity will get the better of it presently and it'll return to another spot. If it is _not_ a gorilla--then we've lost nothing!"
I let forth another call and heard Gran'pa and Dr. Croft give their answering cries as if in mocking derision at our first failure.
"It may go ambling off to _their_ cages," I whispered, in a spirit of intense rivalry.
"It isn't! _We_ want to score the first victory."
Again we called to our kinsmen of the forest; and this time our efforts were rewarded with astonishing success.
Without the least sound or warning, the branches of the surrounding trees suddenly parted at two places at once, and there emerged into the open a couple of huge male gorillas on all fours.
They stopped, stared first at us, and then at one another.
"Rivals for our hands--by jingo!" whispered Stringer, with a nervous attempt at humor.
"I hope to goodness they don't fight!" I answered.
For fully a minute they sat there on their haunches, supporting themselves with their long arms and glaring at each other with hatred, but indecision.
Suddenly the larger one arose and commenced moving slowly in our direction, using its arms as sort of crutches. It looked Stringer straight in the face, and Stringer returned the gaze with all the unwavering calmness of his magnetic soul!
The other brute also began waddling towards us and, as it did so, the first turned its head, struck its immense chest with its hands and let forth roar upon roar of defiance. It bared its teeth, rapidly oscillated its eyebrows, and assumed the most threatening attitude it could command.
Its smaller rival hesitated--as well it might--then it looked covetously in my direction and I could see from the way it eyed me that it was not going to be intimidated in this manner. I adopted an air of complete indifference and went on pretending to eat my pineapple leaves. Whether it was the tasty food or me it wanted I would not be conceited enough to say; but, anyway, it decided to fight.
With a sharp bark and a roar like thunder the two gorillas were upon one another in an instant.
The sight was magnificent, but awful. The great, muscular brutes tore at each other's throats with their hands (and even their feet); they twisted and turned and contorted themselves; they bit; they scratched; and they screamed out their hatred in every key conceivable. The brutality of two men fighting to the death was a mere, friendly sparring match compared with this. They fought without conforming to any rules of sport, without mercy, and without respite. Pieces of hairy skin were torn off by tooth and claw; arms and legs were wrenched and twisted to breaking point; heads were thrust back in an endeavor to get at the throat; and bodies were lacerated with pieces of broken wood as the two infuriated and interlocked monsters flung themselves hither and thither on the earth.